Jessica Wynn

Some YouTube channels offer genuinely free, helpful content, but it has become toxic in a lot of ways.

Students feel like if they're not constantly consuming test prep content, they're falling behind.

It's unhealthy, and it's the worst in the MCAT world.

The MCAT is the medical school entrance exam, and it's part science test, part reading marathon, part experiment in human endurance.

That's definitely why they hang their degrees on the wall.

But studying for professional exams like MCAT, USMLE boards, and the bar are intimidating by design.

The sheer size of the book makes you feel like it must be comprehensive.

It must have everything I need.

But for something like the MCAT,

There is useful content in there, and the MCAT covers an insane amount of material.

Biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, on and on.

And good prep materials can condense that into digestible summaries and highlight the high-yield topics.

Yeah.

And students become obsessed with finding the high yield content because they can't possibly study everything in depth.

And here's where it gets dark.

The industry has created this culture of you will fail without this material.

I saw a cover that really had printed on it in all caps.

Everything you must know or you'll die, and so will your patients.

It's fear marketing at its absolute finest.

And for the MCAT alone, you might buy the Kaplan seven book set, the exam cracker set, and then add the Princeton review courses for good measure.